Many noir anthologies have inspired writers and publishers around the world to gather novelists to set noir stories in a city. When it comes to noir, not all cities are equal. The history of genocide and dislocation sets Phnom Penh apart from other places. What other city in modern times was emptied of all of his people at gun point, a city abandoned and left as a ghost town?

The authors of Phnom Penh Noir take you inside the lives of Cambodians who carry that legacy of that fateful day on 17th April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge arrived and forced the population to evacuate to the countryside. The Khmer Rouge experiment resulted in radical transformation of a society that left a bloody trail, one that left almost no family untouched, and hovers close to the surface in these stories.

In Phnom Penh Noir, the stories, lyrics, and cover photograph have joined legendary creative talents like Roland Joffe, James Grady and John Burdett along with a young generation of Cambodians. The noir tales unfold through multiple points of view and enrich the reading experience. Truth, mortality, regret, betrayal, and loss play out in these stories, poetry and lyrics.

The authors and publishers will contribute twenty percent of their earnings from this book to selected charity organizations in Cambodia.

“Regardless of what you know of the Khmer Rouge era and the dark side of life in Cambodia, the anthology makes not only an excellent literary journey, but also an important historical document of how a bygone era is remembered by people who have witnessed, in some cases first hand, or have lived during the time of the Khmer Rouge genocide.”—Voicu Mihnea Simandan

“[R]ealistic details about the city, Cambodia, and Khmer culture in general.”—Patrick McCoy, Lost in Translation

“You will appreciate each short story and the dark side of Cambodia’s Phnom Penh... As an anthology it [deserves] to be on your bookshelf.”—Lang Reid, Chiang Mai Mail